1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a radioactive seed handling station for use in preparing needles containing radioactive seeds for implant in or around cancerous growths.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the medical field of radiation oncology, small pieces of low level radioactive material known as "seeds" are placed around a cancerous growth by injection with needles. Various concentrations of seeds are injected and placed depending on the particular circumstances of the cancer. One of the methods for adjusting the placement and concentration of radioactivity is to load spacers along with the seeds into a needle before injection, thereby spacing the seeds apart after the injection and providing control over the concentration of radiation from the injection. Of course, multiple injections are commonly used and the spacing of the injections themselves also provides control over the concentration of radiation.
Before the actual injection of radioactive seeds, several procedures are completed to insure the desired dosage of radiation is applied. These procedures includes: verifying the radiation of the seeds; counting the seeds; the actual loading of spacers and seeds in a needle; and, verifying the number and placement of seeds and spacers in the needle.
Prior to the current invention, various devices were used to hold needles while they were loaded, and other devices stored loaded needles temporarily while other needles were being loaded, while other devices were used to hold the needles while the loading was confirmed. This repeated movement of the needles, along with the fact that the needles were generally loaded by using tweezers to drop seeds or spacers into the needles, provided several disadvantages, such as: increased radiation exposure to the individual responsible for loading the needles; increased chances for contamination; increased chances for the seeds and/or needles to be placed in the wrong order for insertion; and, consumption of time. In addition, the use of the various shields and devices for seed verification, needle loading and loading verification often required multiple autoclaves for sterilization, or at least multiple trips to a single autoclave, thereby tying up valuable resources. If an error was made, such as loading a seed where a spacer should be, the entire needle would need to be dumped and reloaded. Prior art devices did not provide a means to verify that a stack of seeds and spacers were in proper order before they were loaded into a needle. In general, prior to the current invention, valuable time and resources were used while unwanted exposure and the risk of contamination were large.